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Windstream breaks ground on Oklahoma broadband stimulus project

Stilwell, Okla. is the latest town that will benefit from Windstream's (Nasdaq: WIN) broadband stimulus program, as the ILEC has begun building out necessary network facilities in the area to deliver broadband services to area residential and business customers.

Funded by a federal grant under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Stilwell build, like others Windstream has done over the past year in other areas such as Kentucky and South Carolina, is a small deployment. In Stilwell, the service provider will leverage a $2.3 million grant and foot about $760,000 of its own money for the project.

The service provider will extend broadband services in the Stilwell area and make DSL connections available to about 1,360 customers.

For this project, Windstream will upgrade its existing network with about 56 miles of fiber cable and associated electronic equipment (remote terminal and CO-based DSLAMs), providing speeds of up to 6 Mbps.

After construction on the network facilities are completed in mid-March, customers should be able to get the new service in late June.

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